Antagonistic Coevolution Drives Whack-a-Mole Sensitivity in Gene Regulatory Networks.

ABSTRACT: Robustness, defined as tolerance to perturbations such as mutations and environmental fluctuations, is pervasive in biological systems. However, robustness often coexists with its counterpart, evolvability--the ability of perturbations to generate new phenotypes. Previous models of gene regulatory network evolution have shown that robustness evolves under stabilizing selection, but it is unclear how robustness and evolvability will emerge in common coevolutionary scenarios. We consider a two-species model of coevolution involving one host and one parasite population. By using two interacting species, key model parameters that determine the fitness landscapes become emergent properties of the model, avoiding the need to impose these parameters externally. In our study, parasites are modeled

SUBMITTER: Shin J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4599961 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature